Scrum Presentation and Sample Scrum Backlog

I recently read "Agile Software Development with Scrum" by Schwaber and Beedle. It is an interesting agile methodology. The key to monitoring
progress is through a document called a Sprint backlog.

If you don't have the time to read a book on scrum, I did distill what I thought were the important ideas in a power point presentation.

The Sprint backlog tracks the status of project tasks over the duration of the Sprint (usually 30 days). Progress is shown visually with a "burndown chart" with hours of estimated work along the y axis and work time along the x axis.

Doug Tillman (http://www.dugthawts.com/) has had some interesting experiences implementing scrum.

I was determined to find a sample backlog and figure out how it worked. It is pretty much based on formulas summing columns. The sample can be found here . This is based on a sample I found on the web.

I used it to show how hypothetically I should work to finish a "Distributed Systems" course I am currently taking.

The LOADING tab shows all available resources and time available.
The SPRINT BACKLOG tab shows the work(assignments)
The BURNDOWN chart section shows the current progress
- if you are above the line you are currently behind schedule
- if you are below the line you are ahead of schedule

Also, interestingly, the rate of falling behind or catching up is shown by the burndown graph.
A nice visual tool indeed.

What I find interesting about the burndown chart is that it is a very visual way of seeing how the project is going and what steps might need to be taken.